About the performer

Jian Wang

Jian Wang began to study the cello with his father when he was four. While a student at the Shanghai Conservatoire, he was featured in the celebrated documentary film From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China. Mr Stern's encouragement and support paved the way for him to go to the United States and in 1985 he entered the Yale School of Music under a special programme where he studied with the renowned cellist Aldo Parisot.

During the 2014/15 season Jian will make his debut with the Munich Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, he will also perform at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and return to the Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony, Seoul and Osaka Philharmonic Orchestras. Chamber performances will include trio concerts in the Far East.

Last season, Jian Wang’s concerto performances included the New York Philharmonic, Toronto and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras. He also played with the NDR Hamburg and Montreal Symphony Orchestras and had recital and chamber concerts in Copenhagen and Hong Kong. Amongst his many high profile concerts in China, he has played for the President and opened the season for the China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony and Macau Symphony Orchestras. He has also played with the China National Orchestra, Hangzhou Symphony and performed the complete Bach Cello Suites at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing.

Jian Wang’s first professional engagement was in 1986, at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Since then he has embarked on an international career, early highlights including concerts with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra/Claudio Abbado and with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Riccardo Chailly (in Amsterdam and on tour in China). He has also performed with many of the world’s other leading orchestras including Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland and Chicago Symphony; London Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Stockholm Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia, Orchestre de Paris and NHK Symphony. Jian also enjoys collaborating with the Camerata Salzburg and the Mahler, Swedish and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. These concerts have been with many of the greatest conductors, such as Chung, Dudamel, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Gilbert, Harding, Neeme Jarvi, Krivine, Langrée, Morlot and Wigglesworth.

Jian Wang has performed at many festivals throughout the world, as both soloist and chamber musician. These have included Verbier in Switzerland, Miyazaki in Japan, Aldeburgh in the UK and Tanglewood and Mostly Mozart in the USA. In 2008 Jian made his debut at the BBC Proms performing three of Bach’s solo Cello Suites.

He has an extensive discography with DGG, Reverie (arrangements for cello and guitar) and the Bach Cello Suites being his most recent releases. Jian Wang has also recorded a Baroque Album with the Camerata Salzburg, the Brahms Double Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado and Gil Shaham; the Haydn Concerti with the Gulbenkian Orchestra under Muhai Tang; Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time (with Chung, Shaham and Meyer) and Brahms, Mozart and Schumann chamber music with Pires and Dumay. His most recent release is of the Elgar Concerto, recorded live with Sydney Symphony and Ashkenazy (Decca/ABC Classics). His instrument is graciously loaned to him by the family of the late Mr. Sau-Wing Lam.